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Thursday, June 02, 2011

These are the kind of games that may come back to haunt you in the later part of the season. Games that you would expect a team to play better in, and the opposite result takes place. That’s what I like about the game of baseball, it’s not as easy to predict as you think it would be. What I don’t like is that the Phils ended up on the short end of the stick again.

The Phillies have now lost games against NL East teams that you would expect them to win against. The Phillies dropped some games against the two worst teams in the NL East. The Nationals are on the bottom of the division at 24-31 and the Mets are near the Nationals at a record of 25-30.

How do the Phillies struggle against two of the teams that they should, on paper, be winning against?

Roy Oswalt pitched a great game against the Nationals, and it appears that John Lannan also pitched a great game for the Nationals against the best team in baseball at the time. Lannan had never beat the Phillies in the last 10 starts against them. The Phillies just could not get the hits when they needed them. That is their problem, they cannot get runs when they need them.

The Phillies offense is back to being suspect. The team is almost at the middle of the MLB in every category of batting. Consider these stats and keep in mind that there are 30 teams in the MLB, here is where the Phillies rank in offense.

Runs - 228

Rank- 17th

Batting Average – .250

Rank - 18th

On Base Percentage – .317

Rank - 18th

Slugging Percentage – .379

Rank – 21st

It’s off to Pittsburgh for the weekend, and again the Phillies are playing a team that is below .500 at 26-28. The Pirates are like the Nationals and Mets, they aren’t on anyone’s list to make the playoffs, but they still play their hearts out every game.

Let’s see if the Phillies can start doing the same, Cole Hamels is looking for his 8th win of the season on Friday night in Pittsburgh.